In short: Every question about The Haunting, the haunted-house horror escape room in Northbridge: Atkins House and Cathy, prices, the 15+ rule, scares, smoke and crawl spaces, accessibility, the leaderboard and finding Lake Street.
The Haunting is a 60-minute horror escape room at Escape This Northbridge in Perth. Your group is trapped inside Atkins House, a rotting home on Lake Street ruled by the ghost of a girl called Cathy, and has to solve its way out before she keeps you as playmates.
Cathy is the child whose laughter fills Atkins House. In The Haunting she has been alone for a long time, surrounded by the dolls and bears she broke, and she wants your group to stay and play with her forever. Anger her and you won’t like the result.
Atkins House is the haunted home on Lake Street where The Haunting takes place. In the story, Northbridge locals have whispered about it for years: noises in the night, mist around the basement vents, and visitors who came out with their minds in pieces.
Escape This bills The Haunting as set inside a real haunted house and inspired by its true history. The room plays inside a heritage-listed Lake Street building more than a century old, and the story of Atkins House grows out of that setting. Whether anything walks its halls at night is for you to decide.
The Haunting is the prequel to The Possession, another horror room at Escape This Northbridge. Play The Haunting first and the story carries on when you step into The Possession.
They belong to Cathy. The Haunting’s nursery is crowded with her mangled playthings, from eyeless dolls to a torn teddy and an old rocking horse. Working through her collection without upsetting her is the heart of the game.
It’s possible, but The Haunting suits groups with some experience. It’s rated 7 out of 10, with intermediate puzzles where the clues are easy to find and hard to crack. Ideally a few players have done escape rooms before; an all-beginner group may prefer Bank Heist or The Wizard’s Chamber at Escape This Perth CBD first.
Properly scary, in a haunted-house way. The Haunting has jump scares, confined spaces, periods of complete darkness, flashing light, smoke and strong adult themes. It’s tense, sometimes gory, and the strict 15+ limit is there for a reason.
Escape This doesn’t list live actors among The Haunting’s effects. What it does warn about is darkness, flashing light, theatrical smoke, confined spaces and jump scares. If any of that worries someone in your group, raise it with the gamesmasters at check-in.
You get one hour inside Atkins House. With 15 minutes beforehand for check-in and the briefing, and around 15 afterwards to recover and debrief, The Haunting takes about 90 minutes all up.
Yes. The Haunting is built for groups of 4 to 12, and its puzzles are spread through the house, so even a big group finds that everyone ends up searching, reading or solving something in Cathy’s rooms.
The Haunting costs $49 per player from Monday to Thursday and $59 per player from Friday to Sunday. Every player pays the same price, and those rates exclude public and school holidays.
Online, in a couple of minutes. The live calendar here (or on escapethis.com.au) shows every open session of The Haunting, and your booking locks in the moment you pay. Rather speak to someone? Escape This Northbridge answers on (08) 6118 0286.
Yes, where you can. Evenings and weekends get busy at Escape This Northbridge, so booking The Haunting early is the safest bet. Last-minute bookings are fine if the live calendar still shows a free slot.
Not in one session. Twelve is The Haunting’s firm ceiling, so larger groups book a second Northbridge room to start at the same moment and split up. Escape This has a multi-room booker for exactly that.
No. Every session of The Haunting is booked for one group only, so the only screams you hear in Cathy’s house belong to your own friends.
Yes. Escape This gift vouchers can be spent on The Haunting at Northbridge and are bought on escapethis.com.au. Just check the person you’re treating is 15 or older.
Very well. The Haunting takes up to twelve, sessions are private, and the shared fright brings a group together fast. Northbridge’s bars and restaurants are on the doorstep for afterwards.
Between 4 and 12. The Haunting needs at least four players because of how some puzzles work, and it never takes more than twelve. Those limits aren’t flexible.
No. Fifteen is the floor: The Haunting is strictly 15+, with no exceptions for younger players even if a parent is playing, and staff may check ID. Children can’t come in as spectators either.
Yes, sadly. The Haunting has a hard minimum of four players. A pair or trio could look at a smaller-group room instead; the Escape This team can suggest one on (08) 6118 0286.
Mostly, if one of you reads English well. The Haunting’s narration and clues are spoken in English, and there’s some reading. Since it’s a team game, one strong English reader in the group is enough to take part, though fluency across most of the group makes it smoother.
No. The Haunting isn’t suitable for wheelchairs: the Northbridge rooms are up two large steps and the game involves crawling through tight spaces. The team can help you find an accessible Escape This room instead.
Yes. The Haunting has a crawl space and other tight spots, so it may not suit anyone who is pregnant or has mobility difficulties. Have a word with the team before you book if that applies to someone in your group.
If it’s severe, probably. The Haunting includes a crawl space and confined corners in the dark. Milder nerves are often fine with friends around, and the panic button is always there. Ask the team if you’re unsure.
Yes. Theatrical smoke drifts through The Haunting, so it may not suit players with asthma or other respiratory conditions. Mention it to the team before you book.
Yes, at times. The Haunting uses controlled lighting with periods of complete darkness and flashes of light. If anyone is sensitive to flashing light, Escape This suggests choosing another of its rooms.
Yes. The Haunting can include jump scares and confined spaces. If anyone has a heart condition, anxiety or simply hates being startled, talk to the gamesmasters at check-in.
They press a panic button and leave. A gamesmaster watches The Haunting on CCTV throughout and will let them out at once, while the rest of the group can carry on.
Not if the group helps. The Haunting’s story and clues are delivered as audio, so teammates can pass on what’s said. The puzzles themselves draw on plenty of other skills.
Fifteen minutes before your start time. That leaves room for lockers, safety notes and the briefing at Escape This Northbridge, so none of your hour in The Haunting is lost.
Go for it. Ghost hunters, Victorian mourners and horror-film characters all look the part in The Haunting. Wear closed shoes and something comfortable, because there’s crawling to do.
No. Mobile phones, smart watches, cameras and recording devices of any kind are banned in The Haunting. Lockers are provided for them and any valuables.
Save the bar for afterwards. Anyone who is under the influence of alcohol or drugs won’t be allowed to play The Haunting, and the team does turn people away.
The Haunting is at Escape This Northbridge, 48 Lake Street, Northbridge WA 6003, in Perth’s entertainment precinct. Head upstairs to the Hall of Horrors, the part of the venue where the horror rooms live.
There’s street parking around Lake Street, and the City of Perth Aberdeen Street car park (121 Aberdeen Street and 104 Francis Street) is less than 100 metres from The Haunting’s front door.
Eight more rooms. Escape This Northbridge pairs The Haunting with horror rooms including The Possession, Dracula, Cannibal and Buried Alive, plus Pirate Island for a lighter adventure. Book two back to back for a long night in.
About half. 51% of the 1,875 recorded groups have escaped Atkins House. The rest ran out of time while Cathy was still playing.
No. Ranked by lowest escape rate, The Haunting is 8th of the 9 rooms at Escape This Northbridge, with 51% of 1,875 groups escaping. The toughest there is Cannibal, where only 33% get out.
57% of the 718 groups who entered The Haunting this year escaped, compared with 51% across all 1,875 recorded games.
The fastest escape from The Haunting took 24:23, set by a team of 7 using 0 clues, with 35:37 still left on the clock.
Most of the hour. Groups that escape The Haunting take 53:13 on average and ask Cathy’s house for about 7 clues along the way.
40,665 players have stepped into The Haunting across 1,875 recorded games at Escape This Northbridge.
Escape, and do it quickly. The Haunting leaderboard ranks groups by escape time, with fewer clues breaking ties. Your group photo is only shown online if you agreed to it at the venue.
Players think so. The Haunting averages 4.95 out of 5, and 179 survivors gave it five stars. Reviewers keep coming back to the creepy atmosphere, the detail in the set and props, and gamesmasters who make the night.
Escape This wrote, designed and built The Haunting itself, from Cathy’s nursery to the effects that bring Atkins House to life, and runs it at Northbridge. Escape This is Australia’s largest escape room operator, with its own escape room design studio and escape room factory.
An invented diary that Escape This writes in the voice of Cathy, the ghost girl of The Haunting. She records the visitors who climb the stairs to Atkins House, the ones who leave before her clock runs out and the man with the beeping box across Lake Street. It is eerie and darkly funny, fine to read at work, and says nothing about how the puzzles work.
No. Cathy never writes down where her things are kept, how her games are played or which way leads out of her house, so the diary hands a group nothing. Read it before you visit to meet her, or afterwards to see the night from her side.
The openings. Escape This’s booking records show The Haunting starting at Escape This Northbridge on 19 March 2021, and its sequel The Possession opening at Northbridge on 26 November 2021, at Sydney CBD on 25 October 2024 and at Melbourne CBD on 10 August 2026. Cathy’s pages for those days carry those dates; the others are dated for the story.
Desmond Crouch, an invented paranormal investigator who watches the window of The Haunting from across Lake Street with a meter that beeps at everything. He keeps case files of his own on the site of The Possession, the sequel set ten years later, covering many of the same nights from the footpath. The two never share a sentence, and neither gives away a puzzle.
The diary is spooky rather than grim: no gore, nothing unsafe for work, and no account of what happened to Cathy. The room is another matter. The Haunting itself is strictly 15+, staff may check ID, and nobody younger can play or come in to watch.
About once a month. Each new page appears on the date written at its top, so the diary keeps step with The Haunting, the real room on Lake Street, through 2027.
Book The Haunting at Escape This Northbridge. Four to twelve players, ages 15 and up, one hour in Atkins House.
